Ministry of Education justifies GHc 220 license fee

The Ministry of Education has defended the two hundred and twenty Ghana cedis it is charging candidates writing the upcoming license Examinations for Teacher trainees in July.

The Ghana National Association of Teachers last week called for a halt in the collection of the said amount with reasons that no stakeholder engagement was organized to determine the amount.

In a Citi News interview, the Public Relation Officer for the Ministry, Vincent Ekow Assafuah outlines the breakdown of the fees.

“Every teacher trainee who is going to sit for the exams is going to write three paper. Each paper cost 60 Ghana cedis. The rest of the 70 Ghana cedis management fees, the management means that we need to pay for invigilators, we also need to hire people to mark the papers, and we need to give a provisional certificate.”

On Monday, a couple of teacher trainees speaking to Citi News, lamented the absence of orientation and course outline to prepare them adequately.

They also complained about the amount they are required to pay for registration claiming it is expensive.

“There is nothing like orientation course outline for us to study before the exams, we don’t even know where the exams will take place, or we do not know how it is,” one trainee said.

“They said we are going to pay about 220 Ghana cedis which is too costly for us, they also said after writing the exams, we are going to serve for one year, before we are posted, which is also bad,” another trainee said.

GNAT calls for suspension of teacher licensing exam

The Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), has already called on the National Teaching Council (NTC) to suspend the implementation of the proposed licensing examination for teachers.

In a statement, GNAT expressed its dissatisfaction at the NTC over what it describes as a “breach of trust and a violation of good labour relations”.

Reacting to some media reports on the fees to be charged by the NTC for the licensing examination, GNAT urged the NTC “to suspend the implementation of the examination fees to be charged pending the outcome of the stakeholder meeting with the Hon. Minister of Education.”

“We are very disappointed with the actions of the NTC since they went behind this arrangement to issue a letter indicating the writing of the examination and the fees of (GHC 220.00).”

According to GNAT, the NTC has been unresponsive in attempts to ensure an effective collaboration for the implementation of the Licensing of teachers in accordance with the Education Act, 2008 (Act 778).

“At a meeting with the NTC on May 29th, 2018, the Unions were promised that the documents would be sent to us by NTC through the Director General of the Ghana Education Service, for our study and inputs. Unfortunately, as at the release of this press statement, no document has been received by the Unions as promised; for us to make the necessary input.”

GNAT has also called on the Minister of Education to convene an immediate stakeholder meeting to discuss and resolve outstanding issues.